https://www.motorcycleshows.ca/ Year-in and Year-out, Canada is our fastest growing market in the world. Giant Loop is making a short drive across the border with product and bikes to display at the Vancouver Motorcycle Show on January 18th-20th. You will find us in Booth 132 directly through the main entrance and across from Honda. Our booth may be small but it will be mighty! We will be teaching Giant Loop 101 all weekend and will have product available for sale. Stop by and talk to the one and only Harold of Giant Loop and Celebrate 10 years with us.

Product of the Week – The Coyote Saddlebag

The Coyote Saddle Bag Roll Top is the rackless motorcycle luggage choice for hardcore off-road expeditions. Carry gear for overnight or multi-day trips — and still have access to the entire saddle — with the Coyote Saddlebag Roll Top mounted to the rear fender and/or tail rack of virtually any dirt bike, dual sport or enduro motorcycle. No passenger pegs required, the Coyote Saddlebag Roll Top anchors to the frame or subframe on most motorcycle makes/models — as well as snow bikes, such as Timbersled and MotoTrax. Above you’ll see the saddlebag fits well on KTM, Kawasaki, Honda, Yamaha, Husqvarna dual sport bikes and even a Ducati Monster!

The Coyote Saddlebag is the perfect choice for a super light set up. Weighing in at only 4.5lbs and and yeilding 39L of carrying capacity, it includes three waterproof dry pods and a Hot Springs Heat Sheild. This bag is one of our highest selling luggage options and is the choice for some amazing riders around the world.

Product of the Week – The Great Basin Saddlebag

A trusted staple in the Giant Loop line up, the Great Basin Saddlebag is the largest in our “loop bag” collection.

We have outfitted an assortment of motorcycles with the Great Basin, and it’s currently on the backs of motorcycles around the globe. In the montage above you’ll find the Great Basin Saddlebag easily mounted on a the Honda CRF250L, Rally Raid CB500X, and Africa Twin, the KTM 1190 Adventure R, the Yamaha WR250, the KLR 650 retrofitted with a sidecar, the Suzuki tu250x, a Yamaha R6 and something random in Nepal….just to name a few.

This bag will carry all that you require for a serious expedition or comfortably carry your weekend provisions.

Great Basin Saddlebag Roll Top Orange

What we love most about the Great Basin Saddlebag is it’s verstility. This bag, rides rackless, behind the rider where the passenger would sit. The “legs” of the bag affix to the passenger foot pegs or other solid mounting point in the same area and anchors at the rear of the bike via three straps on on an existing rear rack or integrated mounting point. The is bag is 68L in capacity and is sold with three waterproof dry pods which organize gear within the bag plus make it easy to haul things to your camp spot without removing the whole loop bag. A Hot Springs Heat Shield is also included with every bag to keep the Great Basin off the pipe.

The outer material is constructed of tough 22 oz. vinyl coated polyester reinforced with ballistic nylon and, like many of our bags the Great Basin has loops added to the sides of the bag that make it easy to add Possibles Pouches or just affix items with Pronghorn Straps. The “beavertail” cinch straps can be extend to allow for a Tillamook or Rogue Dry Bag if extra capacity is required.

When they’re not guiding tours, the Motolao staff are putting Giant Loop gear through the paces, as muddy jungle tracks and river crossings are a regular occurrence on their personal rides.

Jim, of Motolao puts the Giant Loop great Basin Saddlebag through the paces in on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Local transportation in Laos. Need more capacity? Motolao guide, James piggy-backs a Mojavi Saddle bag on a Coyote Saddlebag.

We’re always excited to see our gear being used hard on the harshest of rides. We’re stoked to have Motolao on board to put it to test not just on their personal rides but in a rental setting where it is being used on multi-day trips over and over.

Customer Doug just rode his new a Kawasaki Versys 300 from Virginia to Oregon, and he’s so pleased with his Giant Loop packing system that he stopped by the GL ADV Shop in Bend this morning to show us his setup!

His entire trip has been on pavement, so he created a simple quick-release rear anchor strap to mount the Coyote Saddlebag in front of his top box. Secured to the Coyote Saddlebag with the compression straps, he’s added a Rogue Dry Bag. And the slim Diablo Pro Tank Bag is perfectly proportioned for this small but capable machine.

Giant Loop Rider, Wendi, Rides Badlands on KLR with Coyote Saddlebag

Found in the archives and still valuable, Wendi wrote to tell us about her experience fitting her GL Coyote Saddlebag onto a KLR and riding Badlands. Thanks Wendi!

“Hello Harold,

Thank you for the information on your bags.

While purchased for my DRZ, I did use my GL Coyote bag on my larger KLR for a trip to the badlands last week and it worked great!

I also wanted to let you know that I can’t say enough about the durability of this bag. I am new to dirt riding and have been down numerous times on dirt, gravel, sand, etc, and my bag has no damage at all and doesn’t show any wear yet. I am so impressed with that, so a huge thanks for a great product.

Here’s a couple of pics of my awesome GL Coyote on both of my bikes. Works great – looks cool!

Thank you Road Runner Motorcycle Touring and Travel Magazine for including Giant Loop’s Fandango Pro Tank Bag in Ken Freund’s story about his journey in completing the first Trans-Amazonian Challenge by MotoDiscovery and Motolombia. “The first Tans-Amazonian Challenge joint venture tour by MotoDiscovery and Motolombia is a daunting undertaking for participants and guides alike. A huge loop of northern South America is planned, more than 8,700 miles in 45 days, through eight countries.” Freund biked through Ecudor, Peru, Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, and Venezuala with our Fandango Pro Tank Bag, as pictured in white, courtesy of our Colombian partner, Motolombia. The trusty tank bag withstood gravel and dirt roads, bridges, rocks and mountains without strain or damage to the bag itself or Freund’s Kawasaki KLR 650. The weather-proof Fandango Pro resisted all rain and splashing, keeping contents dry and secure while quietly resting on the gas tank. It comes complete with an easy-access zipper to the fuel tank, making refueling a non-issue in any location. Thanks again to Ken Freund and his team for trusting Giant Loop throughout their grand challenge.

Ken Freund uses his trusty Giant Loop Fandango Pro Tank Bag

A Brazilian local helps Freund fill his gas tank by simply unzipping the Fandango Pro Tank Bag from the included harness that is securely strapped to his Kawasaki KLR 650

Fandango Pro Tank Bag, Coyote Saddlebag, Rogue Dry Bag on long term service tour in Laos

“When you spend most of your time filthy with road dust and sleeping outside or on floors, you fully realize the luxury of seemingly basic things –such as ice, washing machines, and beds.

Apparently they used to ship ice from lakes in North America across the globe to refresh the beverages of the wealthy in India! Ice, especially with some carbonated water and lime, has become quite a treat for me these days.

Hand-washing clothing is not a problem when you can do a little each day, it is just when you haven’t had the ability and it accumulates that it becomes burdensome. I’ve scaled walls ninja-style to launder a load.

And beds, well beds are just utterly fantastic.

Consider this your humble reminder to appreciate these comforts and conveniences if you have them. ”

Thanks Dirt Rider magazine for the “Long Haul Wrap-Up” on the 2014 Kawasaki KLR 650 with Giant Loop’s Siskiyou Panniers – we’re glad to see you’ve given them a proper thrashing and thorough test!

“Over the past year our KLR has been in the snowy Sierras, the dusty Baja desert, the jeep trails of Orange County, and the (scariest of all) the twisted maze of crazed motorists that is the Southern California freeway system. After all of the silt, sand, mud, nails, rocks, and texting motorists, this is how it fared.”

Great long-term test! And if you would like to avoid the “scuffed-up side panels from the panniers,” simply install Giant Loop’s Vinyl Protective Film before riding 2,000+ miles with the Siskiyou Panniers.

Just did a 6 day South Island New Zealand 2000+kl ride mainly off road with a coyote saddlebag on my tricked out gen 1 2007 Klr 650. The design is right on. When you lean your hips back and sideways on corners it’s real easy to just sit on the bag! And that thing didn’t budge the whole trip. Great design.

I’ve been spouting off on Klr owners with a pic of my bike and have gotten a lot of questions to what my bag is. So if you get any Klr orders of late, that’s probably from my post. Seems to be a lot of interest.

I hope to move back to Bend sometime but I gotta tell you, South Island New Zealand rivals Alaska. It’s amazing. Hard to leave that! Cheers fellas. Scott

Thanks Dirt Rider magazine for kitting out your 2014 Kawasaki KLR650 test bike with Giant Loop’s Siskiyou Panniers! In the November 2014 issue’s “Getting Lost On Purpose – 2014 Kawasaki KLR650 New Edition,” it looks like you put the bike – and our Siskiyou Panniers to a proper test in Baja, Mexico.

“There are plenty of safe, controlled, and calculated ways that we could have tested Kawasaki’s big dual-sport bike. Commutes, jeep roads, and mild off-road trails would have been fine, and we did ride the KLR650 in this capacity. Yet riding it 216 miles into Mexico and down the Baja Peninsula, getting lost, riding 55-plus miles of the Baja 500 racecourse, ripping down the beach, and riding back home sounded a tad more exciting. So that’s just what we did.”

“Before heading south of the border we put on a few products to make the trip more managable. . . . We also put on a pair of Kenda Big Block tires, Fastway Adventure footpegs, and Giant Loop Siskiyou Panniers to hold all of our gear.”

The 2014 Kawasaki KLR650 New Edition isn?t radically different from its predecessors but for riders who lean closer to the off-road segment of dual-sport, it is a welcome improvement. Find out 7 things you should know about the new KLR650 here.

Giant Loop Racer/rep Rory Sullivan won the 2014 Funky Chicken race, on his Kawasaki KX250F, a couple weekends ago. Here is a video clip of some of the on course action from the guys at Worthless Films.

The Desert 100 is always physically hard on the racers and their carefully prepared race bikes. ?Therefore,?I was, and wasn’t, shocked to hear news of GL racer Alex Sherman’s crash, while battling for a top ten position in last weekend’s event, and that it was a race ender! ?A rescue helicopter is positioned on the ground and ready for the eventual emergency evacuation of an injured racer. The chopper crew is usually busy during the event, providing life saving transport to the local ER for the urgent medical needs of downed racers.?Fortunately for Alex, he didn’t need any medical assistance, since he avoided injury.

His “lightly raced” 2014 Kawasaki KX450F wasn’t so lucky…

There are no rescue helicopters for injured bikes, however, and that leads to some additional suffering for the damaged machines, as they are ridden back to the pits or hauled onto the sweeper truck.

Alex’s KX450F, was one such motorcycle that was damaged to the point of no longer being race-able, during a tussle with a boulder filled dust puddle. When Alex crashed, the bike hit a hidden rock so hard, that it dented and punctured his upper fork tube, plus twisted his lower triple clamp against steering stop on the frame. As Alex rode out to the pits, the inner fork slider was hammered against the dent in the outer fork tube, hard enough to bend and damage the inner cartridge.

Here are some pics of the bike, with it’s smashed fork leg and lower triple clamp on the operating table, showing the extent of carnage the bike endured, both during and after the crash.

Giant Loop Racer and Sales Rep for 405motosales, Rory Sullivan #507, raced to the finish at the 2014 King Of The Motos. His combined time was 4 hours, 41 minutes and 17 seconds for the AM and PM motos, putting him in 17th place overall, among some world class competition. ?Rory raced with a Zig Zag Handlebar Bag to carry his gel supplements and a cell phone.

Some great pics from Giant Loop Rider Joel, who was supporting the event as a Volunteer.

Rory said in his race recap:

“I’m up this morning and thinking about how the weekend went at King of the Moto’s. I felt good during Saturdays Qualifier but made one small mistake that cost me a bit of time. The Qualifier was around 3 min long so mistakes where costly. In the Sunday morning AM Final I raced well and gave it everything my 250F had but it was mostly flat out desert sections with a couple tech sections mixed in, I?defiantly lost time on the open stuff which was frustrating. I really need to say thanks to?Nate Delaney?at Dirt tricks for helping my gear it down for the race. The PM Final started with a wild land rush start down a sand hill and strait into one of the events famous sections. It was….. let just say interesting! I got to the top of the first section and my clutch was smoked and when I say smoked I mean would not move forward. I spent some time adjusting the cable all the way in and let it cool down, which helped but it was never the same the rest of the event. About 10 miles in I derailed my chain on a rocky climb and lost some more time. Bottom line is it was a tough relentless race but I was determined to finish, and I’m thankful I did. I finished 17th after they combined both the AM and PM races. I will be back next year better prepared. Huge thanks to Pro Caliber VancouverFly Racing, Evo ind,?Bell Powersports Northwest,?Smith Optics, USWE Hydration,FMF Racing,?Fusion Graphix?Dirt Tricks,?Rekluse Motor Sports,?Fasst Company,Fastway Pro?ProMoto Billet,?DeVol Engineering Inc.,Novik Gloves, Rigid industries.”

He said, “They [pics] were took during some trips around Bolivia: Salar de Uyuni (Salt flats), El Chaco (southern part of Bolivia) and the last two are from Yungas (the famous Dead Road).?I have two toys, my F800 GS with the Great Basin and Fandango bags, and my Kawa 450 with the Coyote saddlebag. Both work just perfect for me.?Hope this new year can ride more, I will share my trips with you.

Cheers from Bolivia!”

Carlos also rides trails on his Kawasaki KX450, with a Coyote Saddle Bag.

Giant Loop sponsored local Bend, Oregon, racer Alex Sherman for his 2013 off road racing season. He was awarded a Team Green shiny new KX450F, at the beginning of the season and put that machine to good use, hammering out his results for the year. Alex raced all the GP and XC events on the OMRA calendar and took time to race the ISDE qualifier in Idaho City. He finished the season 2nd place overall in the points standing for Open Expert and was first in class for all of his October events. Congratulations Alex! Follow him on his?Facebook Page?for regular updates.

Some details about his season:
Drove over 6000 miles
Raced 23 events and finished on the podium in his class, 15 of 20 finishes!
“Broke a bone”, nope it wasn’t his leg…
In addition to the ISDE, he raced the Desert 100, an Albany MX race and was on the class winning 24hr relay team for the 24hrs of Starvation Ridge.

Check out the KFX450 pics I snapped when it was delivered to his work bay at ProCaliber, last spring.

I was checking out some pics of riders in action and found this SWEET shot of Giant Loop Rep Rory Sullivan of 405MotoSales. He has got the gas on in that drift and Jock Bradley captured the moment perfectly! I know Rory is happy to have the wind and weather protection provided by the extra tough?Bushwacker hand guards. Easily installed with the included 16″ Pronghorn poly straps, Bushwackers add their coverage by mounting over your existing hand guards.

Thanks ADV Moto for including Giant Loop’s Diablo Tank Bag in the September/October issue’s “ADV Ride For The Masses”! The Diablo Tank Bag is nicely proportioned for smaller enduro and dual sport motorcycles, and it looks great on the Kawasaki KLX250.

Great example of the Diablo/Fandango Harness with fuel access on Kawasaki KLX250

“For extended trips on small bikes, soft luggage makes a lot of sense, and there are a few options worth exploring? . . . We installed a Giant Loop Diablo tank bag, which looks like it was made just for the KLX. The removable base exposes the No-Toil billet venting gas cap perfectly, and the bag itself is waterproof [note: we describe our bags as Adventure Proof – super rugged, stable and highly water resistant, not waterproof] ? large enough to hold your keys, wallet, phone, snacks and some water. Upgrading to the Fandango , for more room [note: same price], is easy and uses the same base!” ? ADV Moto

Because our bags are designed first and foremost to be Adventure Proof, a ziplock bag or protective case inside is all it takes to keep moisture sensitive gear dry.

We think the term “waterproof” is used VERY loosely in the motorcycle industry. We believe accuracy is key to setting appropriate customer expectations. We’d rather “under promise and over deliver” when it comes to claims about preventing water from penetrating our saddlebags and tank bags.

We use the term Water Proof to describe our seam sealed and/or welded roll-top bags only.

Also, our experience suggests that carrying weight behind the rear axel and above seat height (i.e., in a top case) has the greatest impact on the handling of the motorcycle. Especially off-road. Especially for an inexperienced rider on a lightweight dual sport bike. Learning to ride off-road is a lot more fun if the bike feels balanced and solid beneath the rider, not top-heavy and light in the front.

Positioning weight close to the motorcycle’s center (both fore/aft and side/side) and below seat height reduces the impact of gear weight on the bike’s handling, both on- and off-road. And we believe this maximizes the riding experience, making it both safer and more enjoyable.

Keep up the great work, ADV Moto – the magazine just keeps getting better with each issue!